Eri Ninamori (ニナモリ・エリ?, Ninamori Eri) is the daughter of the mayor of Mabase and the president of Naota's sixth grade class. Like Naota she is obsessed with acting grown-up, but she often loses her composure when angry or excited. Ninamori hides her frustration with her father's sex scandal, and rigs an election for the school play so that she gets the lead role while Naota gets cast opposite her, hinting that she has a crush on him.
Debut[]
Ninamori debuts in episode one of FLCL where she questions Naota about his new bandage, drawing the attention of the other classmates present.
Profile[]
Eri Ninamori, 12, is Naota's classmate. In the series, she is referred to as 'Ninamori,' her family name. She is the daughter of the mayor of Mabase and is class president. Ninamori has N.O. powers as well, though they only manifest once when Naota hit his head on hers. In this instance, Naota's third robot, which expresses at first as "cat ears", transfers to her instantly when the Medical Mechanica factory's siren blows. In the manga, an octopus-like robot comes forth, before running away with Naota, and appears very little after that until it helps her save Naota from an angered Haruko.
Personality[]
Ninamori projects a proper, even slightly stuck-up personality, and conceals personal information to an almost obsessive degree; she does not even let her classmates know that she needs corrective lenses, instead wearing contacts while at school. Even with her class president status, however, Ninamori isn't above breaking the rules to get what she wants. She rigs the voting during the casting for the school play in order to get the lead role and have Naota cast opposite her, which hints at her crush on Naota. Other hints are her expressed dislike of Mamimi and Haruko, letting him see her wearing glasses, and a final scene with Naota by a vending machine that mirrors Mamimi and Naota's early-series interactions.
Ninamori is also highly intelligent, if a little jaded. Much like Naota, Ninamori attempts to act mature, and although her parents' problems trouble her deeply, she refuses to admit it until near the end of the series. During the final episode, during gym practice, she tells her classmates Masashi Masamune and Gaku Manabe that she had finally talked to her parents, letting them see her cry, and then performs an impressive high jump which her classmates and teacher applaud - a possible representation of how Ninamori has achieved real emotional maturity, something which Naota had yet to accomplish.
In the novel, Naota refers to her being special, which she also proudly acknowledges. While originally thinking she is specially because of her height, her beauty and style, or her willingness to touch a lizard unlike the other girls, in the end, both seem to acknowledge that she is special only because of her father being the mayor and the family's wealth. As such, he then stated that Ninamori has a "princess" persona, which is further emphasized when she is acting as class president. Naota mentions that she tends to meddle into her classmates' lives and is the first to offer her help even when no one asked for it as well as seek the approval of their teacher. He also mentions that she treats him with a strange sense of comradery, due to the both of them having high grades.
Appearance[]
Ninamori is a bit tall for her age, tall enough that Naota's pajamas are a little short for her. In the novel, she is noted to be the tallest girl in the 6th grade. It also noted that she is aware of her beauty and height, going so far as to wear shoes and sandals with tall heels to further enhance her height during her the weekend. She has dark, blue-green eyes and purple hair. For the first half of the series, she wears her hair long and straight. At the end of the third episode, it is cut to chin-length, and she styles it with accessories or in short pigtails for the rest of the series. In her last scene in the final episode, her hair has grown longer and she wears it in braids.
In Marquis de Carabas, she wore red, plastic frame eyeglasses while in Naota's room.
Ninamori wears different clothes in all of her appearances and has many outfits throughout the series.
Items[]
Ninamori's glasses are her most significant possession. Although she is only shown wearing them in episode 3, they represent her true self and the only person she allows to see her wearing them is Naota. At the end of the episode, when the school play is about to start, he sees her wearing glasses on stage, but she pokes her finger through the frames to show they have no lenses. These fake glasses are not the same as the ones she wore earlier in the episode, which have real lenses.
In the novelization of "Brittle Bullet", she further explains why she wore fake glasses during the play. Ninamori mentions that she normally wears contact lenses in order to appear like an adult, so wearing fake glasses while onstage allowed her to show her true face, that of a young child. Though after the play, she then realized that she did not need to use fake glasses to prove she is still a child.
Abilities and Powers[]
Ninamori is a typical girl until the Medical Mechanica factory's siren goes off in episode three. Suddenly, the cat-like ears signaling Naota's N.O. activity throughout the episode transfer over to her head and a robot partially emerges from it. While stuck in her head, it has complete control over her and makes her eyes glow red. She begins kicking Naota and Canti with rapid precision, and fighting Haruko when she attacks. In this state, her legs are strong enough to fend off blows from Haruko's guitar and send people flying on impact.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- In an interview with director Tsurumaki, he mentioned how Ninamori's appearance changes with every scene she's in, saying that Nobutoshi Ogura favored her design and had fun altering it in subsequent episodes.
- In FLCLick Noise, character designer Sadamoto mentioned that Ninarmori was inspired by Kazue Fukiishi, a gravure idol and actress. Tsurumaki further explained that inspiration came after seeing her throw the ceremonial first pitch at a Kintetsu Buffaloes game, noting that she had just started her acting career and her father was also a player on the team.
- She can be briefly seen twice during the ending credits of FLCL Progressive: a black and white line image of her as an adult with shorter hair and hairclips similar to her design in "FLCLimax" and an image of her next to Naota and Kitsurubami, with long hair and wearing glasses, a scarf and trenchcoat.
- In the final episode of FLCL Alternative, an image of Naota holding onto her as Haruko tries to fight the spider robot that spawned from her head in "Marquis de Carabas" is briefly seen as Haruko and her Vespa are being transported.
- In the final episode of FLCL: Shoegaze, an image of her standing on the stage with her glasses from the end of "Marquis de Carabas" is briefly seen as the pink bird transform and begins to fly off.
- While it may be just a fan theory, many believe that both she and Naota get together in the end.